Best Traveling Poems
I am a photon
a tiny bundle of energy.
My brothers and I
oscillate in synchronized breath;
as a wave,
we hurtle
through black voids,
three hundred thousand kilometers
each second,
a dizzying ride.
Four years ago,
we were flung
from the fire of a star.
A long journey,
but not a lonely one,
for there are many of us.
We are nearing
a beautiful planet
where green continents swim
in blue oceans.
I hope we arrive
in deep darkness
when their star
is on the other side.
Perhaps one of their beings,
gazing at the sky,
receives us.
We will slow down
as we travel
through the gelatinous matter
of her eye
and die
on her retina.
I will no longer be,
but her miraculous brain
will decode our message:
there was a star.
I have walked the desert
Sailed the sea alone
Climbed an Asian mountain
And heard a glacier moan
I have loved and lost
And then loved again
I remember lips
That smiled at me back then
Love was just a word
Back when the world was new
She was young and lovely
Those years were but a few
We talked of tomorrow
And things we could not know
Then suddenly it changed
We'd different paths to go
I have flown an airplane
Ridden many a steed
I have crossed broad rivers
And traveled my own speed
Love was just a word
Back when the world was new
She was young and lovely
Those years were but a few
8-22-18
Unburdened by mass,
star born
photons
hurtle
through vacuum voids.
They reach a planet
where green continents swim
in blue oceans.
It is night. A woman
looks up at the sky.
The photons travel
through the gelatinous matter
of her eye and die
on her retina,
sparking electric pulses
that race
along the optic nerve,
and her miraculous brain
translates:
I see a star.
I am alone traveling light, so solitude
My God is intimate in his light;
He is quiet
Alone He speaks truth, absolute, so solitude;
My soul is solitude my mind self alone, I enjoy
His present soul shown;
Alone in essence in my gratitude
I'm absolute, nothing to refute;
No need to recluse, I choose isolation;
I belong to His Quiet Nation
My space, His grace, my faith
Solitude abundant
Me myself and I
Father Son and Holy Spirit El Shaddai
Me and my him and I my light brightly
Shines I am all His and He's mine
Together we thrive on the right side;
I am alone I stand surrounded by God's angels;
Alone I am solitude my soul finds peace and rest this is myself;
Me at my best, me alone in the arms alone with myself
On my Father's chest soul solitude
So solitude breath to breath, chest to chest
Alone together concentrate my own thoughts only unattended
And accomplished together with no humanity connection;
Thoughts alone I am one's own on;
His throne a singular traveling light lights;
I am alone traveling light soul solitude alone;
And in essence and my gratitude in Him everything is all right
A dedicated verse to Candace Djissenou
12/11/22
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr © 2022
Up Around The Next Bend, Walking Our Traveling Bones
I long for those days when body was fast, mind was faster
earth was a wonderful place and I was its master.
Reality was what a youthful mind and soul made it out to be
we yearned to have it all and still live our lives free.
What wonderful dreams that fantasy world once held
until the forest was no more, every tree was felled.
Time was the great enemy we thought we could defeat
we found we could not, even if we dared to cheat!
Up around the next bend, walking our traveling bones
no talking around the world on our handy cell phones.
We said our sweet words to pretty gals face to face
I regret sweet times that Time changes did so erase.
I sit here, dreaming of wild youth and my distant past.
Crying out loud- O' why- why the hell couldn't it last!
Robert J. Lindley
3-05-2018
Doing an Irish Jig***
(To the music of The Bothy Band)
——— ———
So early in the morning,
If you looked, you
Couldn’t tell that I
Was really awake,
With my mind mixing
Through an Irish hornpipe jig
Beside pretty Peg
And Tiddie Dunbar.
After meeting in
What seems a dream,
We’re friends now
Here in the Glen.
We click.
We switch and twist.
We swing quickly
Our feet forward
And back, to stir
Along on our route
Corner by corner,
Searching for a feis.
They can’t trail our tracks
On this fine traveling.
Perhaps we’re keeping
A foot to foot over the earth!
————————————————-
(c) sally young Eslinger 10/16/21
Thanks be to God
Traveling cosmos in a star-crossed house at rest
She watched for dreams, catching only the best.
How the house was motorized is anyone’s guess
She traveled around the stars, our friend Ma Cress.
Mystically she was in tune with another world.
Her hopes and dreams were not unfurled.
But we were in awe of Ma Cress for sure.
Her dream state was decidedly totally pure.
I have a flash for you ...
Think you can hang with me??
I doubt it ... I keep a pretty quick pace, if you know what I mean!
I may be very small, but I'm pretty special ...
Just the knowledge of my existence
Has led to amazing things!
Things like lasers, Bose–Einstein condensation, Quantum field theory,
And the probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics ...
I'm a very particular particle, you see!
A very elementary particle ...
The quantum of the electromagnetic field,
Electromagnetic radiation such as light,
And the force carrier for the electromagnetic force!
I am as fast as fast can be,
Traveling at the speed of light in a vacuum,
Even though I have no rest mass at all!
I am also special in that I can exhibit the properties of a WAVE, too!
I can be refracted by a lens and exhibit wave interference with myself,
And I can behave as a particle,
With definite and finite measurable position and momentum!
I've been applied to photochemistry ...
I've been used for high-resolution microscopy ...
I've even been utilized for measurements of molecular distances!
Recently, I've been studied as an element of quantum computers,
And for applications in optical imaging and optical communication,
(Like quantum cryptography) ...
Too fast and far too tiny to hold, so I doubt you can keep up!
But, oh, am I important!
Einstein knew how important I was,
Even when people told him I didn't exist ...
He KNEW, and persisted!
Oh, you should see what I'm doing at CERN!
You will, you will ...
And it will blow your mind!
You see, I'm traveling light ...
And I'm very, very bright ...
But you can call me ...
PHOTON!
** EIGHTH PLACE in the "Traveling Light" Poetry Contest, Kai Michael Neumann, Sponsor. **
I left my childhood home to take
a nationwide train ride,
to meet my love who had gone ahead
and was waiting for his bride.
It took me two nights and a day
to reach his loving arms.
I had a happy tale to tell
of the train ride and its charms.
Since then of course I've taken
many long fast trips by air,
knowing all the while, it made no sense
that the plane could stay up there.
I've also taken vacation trips
with my family in a car,
but I recall that first train ride
as more exciting trip by far.
My one stop was in Chicago,
where I didn't leave the train depot,
until the train to Detroit pulled in
and it was time for me to go.
I had never before been far from home
and beloved and well known faces,
but secretly had often yearned
for exciting, exotic places.
I felt so safe on that long train
with no fear of an accident.
I knew the train had tracks of it own
on every mile it want.
In those war years, the passenger train
was the only way to go
and I've taken many more trips on them,
sometimes with small children in tow.
It seemed like a magic bullet
as it carried us, you know,
and no matter our destination,
that big train knew where to go.
for the train contest.
Passenger seat travel
is boring, boring. boring
Pencil and paper
occupies time, hands
and mind.
Put pen to paper,
record the unusual.
Humorous signs
ugly buildings
hawks in treetops
crows feasting on road-kill
broken, abandoned cars
hitch-hikers
roadside stands
when suddenly
breathtaking scene
gone in a flash
speaks eloquently
of the Master’s touch
and lingers for miles.
© Cona Faye Adams 7/18/2016
It was six days past the seventh
I was on the road again
Putting distance in the rear
Of the places I had been
Left that girl in Amarillo
The one in those nice blue jeans
Headed for San Francisco
In that city filled with drag queens
It’s been three years since I’ve seen home
Guess I’d better retrace and head on out
Mama is probably still praying
You can bet on that no doubt
After all that time chasing rainbows
And all that time wasting space
I’m right back where I started
Boy I still love this old home place
Found a different crowd down at Floppy’s
But still sipping on wicked brew
Still playing eight-ball
And eating up that bar-b-que
The mayor’s not the same
Seems everything’s changed round here
Guess I’ll join this different crowd
And have another cold beer
I see all those girls I dated
Done up and got themselves married off
Bankers, realtors and a mayor’s son
Except for Sarah who landed one of the cloth
Things aren’t the same as I left them
Time stands still for no one
So I’ll say good bye again to mama
And get this rig on a western run
I’m pulling into Waco
Dog tired with eyes are turning red
I’m signing off for the evening
And getting myself ready for bed
Three stars to the dream pierce
and I find you sitting there,
forlorn
absorbed
and lost in sickle thoughts
I rush to metal supermarkets
and bring you gifts of spirit,
paper roses
lead balloons
and melted ice in buckets
You laugh like rivers bubbling
over stones and odd appendages,
snapping,
pulling
yourself right out of silver dreams
I hold your hand in transit
from three stars to nowhere really
alone
with you
as we're half way now to sleep...
There are places I’ve grown from some far and wide
Past my heart and lingering within my mind
There are roads I may have crossed craggy and forgotten
Each step I take I ascertain more clearly
Through the willful nights and past stories
I never looked back for more than a mere second
Whispering all the things I saw and sensed
I’ve learned to transform inconveniences and annoyances
This wind that now blows shows me-
I must discipline my intellectual truths
Training in the joy of day to day
I shall walk along the ruins of yesterday
On a journey of understanding myself
With less fear and doubt and wiser to the day
(Adventures In Geriatric Land)
Does your dentist have money for Porsche that you’ve lost?
Is the hair on your head now the color of frost?
Is the zip in your life only internet speed?
Do your savings accounts all too easily bleed?
Does your bladder evacuate slower than sound?
Do your friends all speak louder when you are around?
Is night driving more difficult due to the glare,
Do night road signs all seem that they’re needing repair?
Are closed captions de rigueur while watching TV,
Spicy foods mean you’re somewhere you don’t want to be?
Do you now find you look at each phone number twice,
Does it seem you’re less trusting of stranger's advice?
Does high fashion place second to comfort these days,
Shoes that tie seem they must be a teenager’s craze?
Does your body seem more like the shape of a pear,
Are there times you’re not sure if your feet are still there?
Does your nose know what septum that deviates means?
Do you find that you’re now not so jealous of teens?
Does your back really hurt at times, knees always ache?
Do you sometimes feel drowsy when life needs awake?
And do taxes now fill your whole body with dread
Are there days that you feel like you envy the dead?
Can you look at your life and still think it well spent?
Does it seem now that multitudes live in your tent?
Well if all this is true and you still greet the day,
If you don’t let the little things get in your way,
If you’ve learned to accept and you don’t fear the end
Then rejoice in arrival of mensch-hood my friend.
Brian Johnston
January 22, 2016
I found a place of
divine intervention
The Land of Italy
The Towers of
Sorrento and Capri
So it is,
I fell in love
with this place
a country so full of grace
Italy with history of war,
volcanoes, earth and sea
People friendly, loving, caring...
Sorrento luring me into
it's piano bars and night life
fragrances of food
touching my hunger
Onto Assisi, historical buildings
and Churches meet
A quaint town lines
cobble stoned streets
Capri almost a country on it's own
an Island in the sea
A rock with a hole
the "Blue Grotto" it is called
at top a surface quite flat
they offer coconut drinks
and a cable car spat.
(c) Glen Harris 11/2/2000